TDA Bullpen - Our Writers' Blog

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

The Hall of Fame choices were interesting this year, given the context of Pete Rose. One stream of thought we've been getting a lot over the past few days is "Pete picked the wrong addiction, if he had been an alcoholic or a drug abuser, he would have been given a million second chances."

Dennis Eckersley wasted the first half of his career, drinking his talent away. Paul Molitor moved from weed to cocaine before cleaning up his act. So here is a pair of examples of addicts who were in fact given second chances, and moved their games to the highest level.

But there's a big difference. Once Eckersley and Molitor addressed their problems, when the fans saw them they could be fairly sure they were seeing something on the level. These players could piss in a cup and get a clean bill of health. How many people wondered "Gee, what was going on there?" when Eck or Molitor screwed up? They didn't have to worry about the validity of what was going on between the white lines, baseball was testing to make sure everything was on the level. But what test is there for gambling? Outside of a private eye following a player 24/7, how can you make sure things are legit? If a gambler is given a second chance, most of the crowd is going to groan about every mistake the player makes, wondering if he has fallen back into his old habits. That's why gambling is more central to the "integrity of the game" than those other addictions.

Speaking of integrity, Pete is still lying to us. When asked about gambling, his response was "The farthest thing from my mind right now is making a bet on anything." Except that he's a known legal gambler. He drops money on the horses all of the time. If he wants to really clean up his image, then he should drop all gambling. So long as he is gambling, he should at least cop up to "I still bet on the ponies, but baseball is out of the question, even now that I'm no longer involved." Secondly, he told Bud Selig that he never placed bets from the clubhouse, even though witnesses and phone records show this not to be true. After 14 years, lying is as hard a habit to drop as gambling...

posted by David 9:54 AM